Happy Days (National 18 number 358), sailed by Colin
Barry, Andrew Moynihan, and Colin Galvin of Monkstown Bay SC, won the Cork
Harbour Trophy for the best eight of the ten races by a margin of only two
points at the National 18 Foot Dinghy Class European Championship at Britain's
new Olympic Sailing Centre at Portland from Monday 1 to Friday 5 August.
They clinched their victory by beating fellow club members David O'Connell,
Kevin Horan, and Shane O'Connell, sailing Ball n'chain (331), by 21 points to
23. Happy Days counted only one first but had three seconds, two thirds
and two fourths against Ball n'chain's two firsts, three thirds and three
fourths.

Three Blind Mice (372), sailed by Nick Walsh, Rob
Brownlow, and Mark O'Donovan, of the Royal Cork YC, was third overall with 25
points.

This was the first major international dinghy
championship to be held at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy
since the selection of Britain as the host country for the 2012 Olympics ensured
Weymouth and Portland will be the venue for the Olympic yachting.

The 31 boats and 93 crew members enjoyed some excellent
sailing in Portland Harbour over the five days with winds ranging in strength
from a light westerly zephyr on the Monday, when only one round of one race was
sailed, to a moderate to fresh gusty south westerly wind on the Tuesday,
when three races were sailed back to back, and again with two back to back races
on the Friday, and what the competitors described as ideal conditions in more
moderate WSW winds with two races on both the Wednesday and Thursday.

The National 18 was designed by Uffa Fox in 1936 as a
clinker-built wooden boat. The first glass fibre 18 was built in 1970 to a
design by Ian Proctor. This basic design was gradually improved and the latest
shape is now wider and shallower, with the weight down to a minimum of200kg. The most recent boats were built
on the west coast of Eire and are equipped with a trapeze for one of the three
crew members, and provide fast, exciting sailing in windy weather.The racing is organised to give each of the three types of
National 18 - the modern "ultimates", the older "penultimates" with glass fibre
hulls, and the heavy wooden "classics" an opportunity to share in the prizes,
with all starting together and sailing the same course, but the classics sailing
about two thirds of the distance sailed by the faster glass fibre boats.

The racing was organised by Tamesis Club with the help of
the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, at Osprey Quay, Portland,
and Portland Castle SC. The use of both windward-leeward tiangular and
windward-leeward trapezoidal courses in the 2-mile wide Portland Harbour gave
the competitors some interesting tactical options on the beats to the first mark
and some challenging spinnaker work on shy reaches and runs. John
Gluckstein's X412 Double J was the Committee Boat and the Race Officers were
Simon Vines and Donald Forbes. Jeremy Vines chaired the Tamesis Committee
which organised the event and former Tamesis Commodore Roy Doughty was Regatta
Chairman. A team of 14 Tamesis members helped with the organisation both
on and off the water.

Held in Scotland, Eire, the Isle of Man and England on a
four year rotational basis, the championship poses a problem for Tamesis as the
only inland club involved in that it has to be sailed at sea. The other
three clubs, the Royal Findhorn YC, the Royal Cork YC and the Isle of Man YC,
are all located on the coast and can run the event from their own
premises. The competitors were so enthusiastic about the WPNSA that
Tamesis has booked the centre for the 2009 championship. Next year's event
will be held in the Isle of Man.

Happy Days (358) and
Three Blind Mice (372) fight for the lead (Photo: Simon
Vines)